Tri Met's Westside Express
service, or West was already
headed in the wrong direction,
and the pandemic has made the
commuter rail line struggles even
more pronounced. Ridership is
down nearly 75% from where
it was this time last year.
At the current rate,
it cost TriMet nearly $108.00
per passenger to operate West.
Introduce yourself,
you would John Charles Cascade Policy
Institute. What's the solution as far
as West? Can it be turned around or should
it be dissolved? What should we do?
I believe that West is terminal
and it should be euthanized.
Treatment would have to
probably buy their way out.
But there's a fallacy known as the
sunk cost fallacy, which is, Oh well,
we've already put all this money in.
We can't stop now.
And my response is yes,
actually you can.
TriMet open West in 2009.
The commuter rail operates on nearly
15 miles of track between Beaverton
and Wilsonville, and that's part
of the problem. Say critics West goes
from one suburb to another, not downtown,
and almost all care rail lines
in the country or suburb to
Central City according to
its own reports,
TriMet said between 3000 and 4000,
daily riders were forecast
for the line by 2020.
W has never come close to those numbers.
Even pre pandemic financially,
is it worth the investment?
So far the ridership potential has
not lived up to the expectations
and a big part of that is that the
large destination type employers
haven't matured in the corridor as quickly
as had been projected. Roberta Alstead is
a spokesperson for TriMet.
She admits West had some bad luck.
Employers surrounding the West stations left,
while other big operations never moved in.
And again, there's the route which
was inherited. It's an old rail
line. If the West line actually
went from Wilsonville and to
Beaverton and into downtown Portland,
ridership would be a lot higher,
but it had to go where
the tracks already were.
Fewer riders means greater expense for
the agency and ultimately taxpayers.
Since its inception West,
have seen operating costs per passenger
dip slightly then rise dramatically.
Keep in mind the pandemic is crippled
public transportation nationwide,
but even then compare the cost of
operating West versus Tri Met's.
Other services like light rail and bus.
It's not even close.
It is too expensive.
The way we're operating it today,
but we're not operating it correctly.
Even the rail lines fiercest
supporters like Dan Mcfarling of
the Association of Oregon Rail
and Transit advocates suggest.
There has to be change
one of the things that makes West less
cost effective than we would like it
to be is because it does not operate
frequently enough and it does not
operate during the hours of service that
people need in order to use it right
now, West only runs during
the four and a half hour.
Morning and evening commutes.
People like Dan wanted to run
all the time and maybe even had
the line extended to Salem.
Well, some people say you know what?
It's so expensive we should do away with it.
You're essentially suggesting
just the opposite that it
should actually be expanded.
Absolutely study after study
has shown that when you have
a public transit system,
particularly rail system,
and you increase the frequency,
the ridership goes up per train, so.
OS is boxed in
a bit because it coordinate
schedules with the railroad.
The doors are closing,
TriMet is locked into an agreement to
use the freight rails for decades,
critics argue those deals
should be reconsidered.
Stop digging the hole deeper.
There's no market for West.
They should just admit it was a mistake.
Experts
predict the pandemic has
forever changed the way we
commute and the way we work,
which makes you wonder if West,
which has struggled to attract
commuter passengers for years.
Will ever get on track?
Kayla Vocie KGW news.